One reason I still read Cobb

He remembers Mr. Peabody. NOBODY remembers Mr. Peabody.

Somebody's Idea of Black Culture
Baldilocks is meditating on an old meditation. I thought I'd bring back some flavor to that discussion that we've discussed here and there.

The way I see it, there are two bogus arguments that fuel such problematic discussions and and one shady argument. The first bogus argument is the racist one. Blacks are genetically predisposed to be blockheads, so ugliness is inevitable. Second bogus argument is a slippery version of the first, racist, but trying not to sound racist: Black *culture* is predisposed to ugliness and so such behavior is to be expected. The third argument is the shady one which suggests that Black culture *should* have ugly elements in it because it's appropriate to the political struggle of African Americans.

If people really respected Artest as an individual (or disrespected him as an individual) we wouldn't be talking about black people, culture or authenticity. But now that we are, Mr. Peabody, crank up the wayback machine.

Followed by links to explain why I never give up on him.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on December 1, 2004 - 12:01am :: Race and Identity
 
 

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I remember Mr. Peabody and his boy Simon. In fact, I just bought the second DVD release of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. I purchased the first volume last year. Hey, man, I can recall that several years before Rocky and Bullwinkle jumped on the scene that their creator Jay Ward had a cartoon character named Crusader Rabbit and his running buddy was a tiger named Ragland T. Tiger or Rags for short. Talk about way, way back.

With regard to Ron Artest and what his behavior may symbolize about black folks I exhausted my profundities over issues like that many years ago. Remember the observation of the old man in "Drylongso" who said that toubob will always be toubob. (I'm not sure if I got the spelling right.) The old man was right. They will never change.

Posted by  PTCruiser on December 1, 2004 - 8:41pm.

I remembered Crusader Rabbit, but I fogot about Rags until you mentioned him.

There's a bag of those old characters I can never talk about because kids will think I'm crazy. I remember my daughter's reaction the first time I sang the theme song for "Dodo, The Kid From Outer Space" for her. And seriously no one remembers Commander Bleep. Hell, I barely remember Commander Bleep.

Posted by  Prometheus 6 on December 1, 2004 - 11:36pm.

Commander Bleep might have been a locally produced show that was televised only in the area where you grew up. One of the local late afternoon shows we watched was called "Fireman Frank and Friends". Frank's friends were puppets including a little robot whose mother was a tin can. I think the folks who put together these kinds of programs had senses of humor that were full of sly, wry jests and a comic feeling for the absurd.

Posted by  PTCruiser on December 2, 2004 - 9:42am.

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